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In the heartland of America: Gauging the mood on Iraq

I have been traveling the last week, and am presently in Salt Lake City visiting my son at the University of Utah. An interesting article on the front page of the Salt Lake City Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/ ) titled 'Survey shows mood in Iraq" caught my eye. Being used to similar articles written by the national media in the DC Area, I started to take the article here with a proverbial grain of salt. Then, I read the article and decided to share it with you.

The article, by reporter Matthew LaPlante, reported on a single question, "Which of the following positions comes closest to your view on the war in Iraq??

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling January 8-9, 2009, and has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

LaPlante points out that only 7% agreed that the mission has generally been accomplished, although 46% did say that the mission has produced generally positive results. Conversely, another 44% provided a negative response. To President Bush, that means his support dipped below 50% in Utah for the first time.

In an interesting irony, LaPlante quotes Professor Michael Lyons of Utah State University as saying, " The situation in Iraq is now better than it has been for at least five years, and for the first time now, the administration may be in a position to say 'we believe we are going to accomplish the mission'," referring to the now famous sign on the banner in New York harbor nearly six years ago where it stated "Mission Accomplished."

It seems that in at least part of the heartland, the mood is still split, and the ultimate view still open on the Iraqi war.

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In the heartland of America: Gauging the mood on Iraq

I have been traveling the last week, and am presently in Salt Lake City visiting my son at the University of Utah. An interesting article on the front page of the Salt Lake City Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/ ) titled 'Survey shows mood in Iraq" caught my eye. Being used to similar articles written by the national media in the DC Area, I started to take the article here with a proverbial grain of salt. Then, I read the article and decided to share it with you.

The article, by reporter Matthew LaPlante, reported on a single question, "Which of the following positions comes closest to your view on the war in Iraq??

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling January 8-9, 2009, and has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

LaPlante points out that only 7% agreed that the mission has generally been accomplished, although 46% did say that the mission has produced generally positive results. Conversely, another 44% provided a negative response. To President Bush, that means his support dipped below 50% in Utah for the first time.

In an interesting irony, LaPlante quotes Professor Michael Lyons of Utah State University as saying, " The situation in Iraq is now better than it has been for at least five years, and for the first time now, the administration may be in a position to say 'we believe we are going to accomplish the mission'," referring to the now famous sign on the banner in New York harbor nearly six years ago where it stated "Mission Accomplished."

It seems that in at least part of the heartland, the mood is still split, and the ultimate view still open on the Iraqi war.